Daughter of the Desert
Gertrude Bell
How did a girl from Redcar become the most powerful woman in the British Empire? Gertrude Bell's passion for archaeology and adventure led her from Teesside to the Arabian desert and the British Intelligence service.
Gertrude Bell was born in Washington (Tyne and Wear) on 14 July 1868 but moved to Redcar with her family when she was very young. Her father was a wealthy ironmaster who allowed her to go to Oxford University where she became the first woman to graduate with a first class degree in Modern History.
Gertrude spent the next ten years travelling around the world, taught herself archaeology, Persian and Arabic and became an accomplished mountaineer. She found her spiritual home in the middle east and when war broke out in 1914 she was recruited by British Intelligence.
She died in 1926 from an overdose of sleeping pills (no one knows whether it was accidental or deliberate) and is buried in Bahgdad. Part of her legacy funded the establishment of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
Submitted by: Sarah McLusky, 08 April 2004
